Mr. Vijoy Chakraborty:

I engage with professionals and those designing places in the years to come but I have a role as a practice educator as well. There are occupational therapy students who get nine-week or 11-week placements with the Irish Wheelchair Association. During their placements, they get a good understanding of access issues. Much of my role in the association concerns access. We are also in the process of engaging with the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland, RIAI, to see if we can even develop a continuing professional development course. Accessibility might be covered in a chapter when somebody is becoming an architect but not everybody may have gone through the process. Having some engagement with the RIAI means we can target the issue early.

Recently we had contact from Bank of Ireland, which wanted to officially determine the possible areas in which it can improve. One of the officials came to us and we went out with a person in a wheelchair to go to a local bank. They had a perfect understanding afterwards, as the person could not open the doors through which people had to go, for example. There was also the issue of ATM height, etc. We are engaging with banks and they must bring the issue back to management. The process could be subject to budgets, etc.

Many public playgrounds can be considered wheelchair-accessible as long as there is proper flooring and one or two facilities which people in a wheelchair can access, such as vertical panels. Children with disabilities will also want to experience some kind of challenge when they go to a playground. They want to take risks. We are advocating for this. There is some playground equipment that could be used by people in wheelchairs, and this relates to Deputy McLellan's point about barriers to use. Much of the time people might consider if designs need to be changed or if they can get away with just the minimum standards. This can be the biggest barrier in implementation. As long as there are levels and gates which are accessible, the playground is technically wheelchair-accessible. Is that any good for children in wheelchairs and what motivation do they have when they visit that playground? In any public playground, the procurement policy should have a clause detailing how many pieces of equipment can be usable by people in wheelchairs.

We are engaging with many agencies about changing places, including Dublin Airport. The work is still in progress at terminal 2 after a number of years. We are also working with the National Gallery of Ireland and there will be another adult changing facility available there. Recently, we have been engaging with Inclusion Ireland, another organisation, and we will have a meeting next Monday about the changing place campaign. We are associated with that. The question was asked regarding guidelines, and these are included in our guidelines